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By Neto Baptiste
There has been no formal request by the Antigua and Barbuda Football Association (ABFA) for use of the Antigua Recreation Grounds (ARG).
This is according to Minister of Education, Sport and the Creative Industries, Daryll Matthew, who said that amidst all of the discussions and public debate over whether the association should be allowed to play its Premier Division competition at the historic venue, they have not officially written to the government on the issue.
“So we met with them to discuss schools football and the partnership that we have with the football association, schools football, and I said to them in the meeting at the time that, as of that moment, leading up to that moment when we met about a week and a half ago, no one from the ABFA has ever come to the ministry and said let’s have a discussion on recreation grounds. I said listen, we can have a conversation on the use of recreation grounds but you know I keep hearing these discussions on Facebook and every now and again you meet people and they say oh you don’t want us to use recreation ground and I keep saying up until two weeks ago, a week and a half ago, no individual associated with the Antigua and Barbuda Football Association has ever reached out to us here and said let us have a conversation about football and the use of the ARG,” he said.
The FA last used the ARG for domestic football during the 2019/20 competition which was halted by the Covid 19 pandemic. Since then, the body has held it’s top flight competition at the technical and training centre located on the Sir Sydney Walling Highway.
The state of the facility then became the subject of national debate with several stands, bathrooms and even the playing surface in need of major repairs. In February of 2023, Matthew announced that government had moved to end its lease arrangement with the ABFA for the venue.
The ARG was revitalized and used as a practice venue during the 2024 ICC T20 Men’s World Cup jointly hosted in the Caribbean and the USA. Since then, Matthew has expressed hesitance with allowing ABFA football to return to the venue.
The football association acquired a lease for the venue back in 2012.
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